TRUSTED!

This may make the hair stand up on the back of your neck as you, horrified, read this true account of how someone who had a blind grandmother, trusted me to babysit her two children of seven and nine so perhaps babysit is hardly the right term

The little girl whom I shall call Christine was a delightful little seven-year-old and her older brother whom I shall call Terry was nine. Their parents were a curate at my then local church and his wife whose grandmother was blind so she knew what we were capable.

Of. They, (the parents) weren’t far away and could have come home in an emergency but there wasn’t one. I was with these delightful children for a whole Saturday!

Things began fine, with me telling them how when at my old blind school we all took off our shoes and socks and crept out of the room leaving our blind music teacher talking to a row of empty chairs! This gave Terry the idea that he could take full advantage of the situation by becoming rebellious and refusing to do as he was asked. When I asked him to do something he replied: “No”

“Make me”

and other such unhelpful and rude replies. He littered the floor with cushions from the chair then came up to me, tapped and prodded, poked and pinched me and then ran off laughing, thinking I’d be fool enough to chase him and fall over the asorted debris so he could laugh all the more. Instead I just sat there, silent and took it all, biding my time. I knew I had to outwit him and being the adult I knew I would despite my blindness.

Eventually, not getting the response he wanted he returned to his beloved computer. That’s when I walked up behind him and said:

“When you have a horrid little fly which keeps buzzing you wait for it to settle. I see you’ve settled. Blind I may be but stupid I’m not. Now you’re to go at once and pick up everything on the floor in the other room and put it all back including the chairs you’ve moved and the cushions you’ve dropped”.

“Or else what”?

He said:

“Or else I unplug this computer and muck up what you’ve been doing. Then I ring your parents and tell them how naughty you’ve been and I never come here again. I mean what I say so get on with it this minute”.

I had my hand on the plug socket and by this time Terry was frantically pleading with me not to pull the plug out.

“Right Terry”,

I said.

“Everyone deserves a second chance but if you ever play me for a fool again I shall tell your parents”.

“If I tidy up will you tell them this time”?

“No I’ll not but first you have to tidy up and then say sorry for what you’ve done because to take advantage of a blind person is morally wrong as I’m sure you know and if you don’t I will tell you. Had I been stupid enough to run round the room after you I could have had a serious accident and maybe broken a leg and then where would you be and who would have looked after Wheat”?

He tidied up, came and sat by me, said

“Sorry and was near to tears”.

I took hold of him saying:

“When a person says sorry for what they’ve done and not just in the hope of getting themselves out of trouble with their mummies and daddies it’s wrong not to forgive them because if someone doesn’t accept their apology the naughty person goes on feeling bad. Are you truly sorry”?

“Yes I am”,

he said and I believed him.

“Right then. I forgive you and we’ll say no more about it”.

From then on they were like two little angels and we were all playing cards with my Braille cards when their parents came home.

“Have they been good”?

They asked:

“Yes”,

I said but, being unable to fib without looking as if I was, the curate and his wife knew something had happened and questioned me about it as they drove me home.

“Well I promised Terry I’d not say anything and if I do I will break his trust and if you tell him off he’ll never have faith in me again so I want your solemn promise not to tell him off”.

They promised and I told them everything on the understanding that it remain between us.

I babysat a few times for them, playing hide and seek as I knew my way round the parsonage, even carrying tea from the kitchen to their dining room, causing Christine to say:

“I think you’re a very clever woman to be able to do that. I couldn’t carry tea with my eyes closed”.

Neither of them ever gave me trouble again and I grew to love them and they me. Inwardly I was quite frightened that the situation mentioned above would escalate, that Christine may join in and it would get beyond my control but thank goodness it didn’t.

I’ve occasionally babysat for blind friends’ children and loved it and stayed with another sighted couple’s children with whom I played and have a photo to prove it, of me pushing them on their swing.

What I did was tell the older one to go and tap on the swing very loudly (children love that don’t they)? Then I’d follow the sound till I reached them. I told them in no circumstances to swing till I started pushing them or I may get kicked in the face. I told these children bedtime stories from my head and the two older children, one of whom had Down’s Syndrome especially loved playing with me. In this other family’s case, the mother told me the little boy with Down’s normally wouldn’t go to strangers but he came to me willingly.

I’m sure Terry, Christine and indeed I learned a valuable lesson when I was with them that Saturday. It’s one of the golden memories I have in my head. They will be grown up now and they will have done so with a positive attitude to blind people – Seeing their capabilities and what can be achieved when the chance presents itself. Incidentally all they had to do when we played hide and seek was to call:

“Wheat! Wheat”!

Then the soppy old dog wagged and barked and gave me away at once so they always found me.

For me to be trusted in this way boosted my self esteem and gave us all a lot of pleasure and as I say gave them a positive attitude to blind people and that has to be a good thing wouldn’t you agree?